Cleveland Marathon Review-Part 1

What a whirlwind weekend we had! It was an emotional one full of smiles, panic, laughter, and let’s face it pain. I finished in 4:22 and got a new PR by 9 minutes. My last PR was in Chicago last fall at 4:31.

The heat and sun really took a toll on me near the end of the race. I think I especially suffered because I trained in 30-40 degree weather through the winter & spring.

Let’s begin with the day before the race. Kevin and I were traveling to Cleveland and I decided to confirm my registration and bib number through the website. I typed my name in and nothing came up. I tried a few more times and attempted to put in my maiden name just in case I made a mistake while registering. Still nothing. I figured there must be a problem with the website so I checked our bank statements to see what date I registered on. It wasn’t on there. I slowly realized a crazy stupid mistake I had made and panic hit me hard. I had not registered for a race that I spent 16 busting my ass for and talking about to anyone that would listen.

Kevin calmed me down as usual, and made a plan to save my sorry butt. The race website said they were still selling some marathon spots at the expo. We decided to get to the expo and see if there were still spots left. The back-up plan was to sign up for the half marathon and still have a fun day. It was of utmost embarrassment when I had to explain to Robert, Kevin’s brother who also raced, what I had done. I’m pretty sure I heard 15 month old Eli chuckling in the background.

We made it to Robert and Carrie’s house and played cars & read books. Then we headed down to the expo and found the registration and packet pickup. Amazingly, there were marathon spots left! I was so relieved and could finally relax. The price had increased but I sucked it up.

The race shirt is a cute short-sleeved tech shirt in white. The expo was well organized and packet pickup was really quick. The shopping was decent but I didn’t need anything.

Dinner was pizza and pasta and I was in bed by 9:30. I slept really well, and I wasn’t too nervous when my alarm went off at 4:00am. We were ready and out the door by 4:45. My wonderful husband Kevin drove us to the city and parked the car, while Robert and I made our way to the start area.

The best thing about the Cleveland marathon was the bathroom situation. The race started just outside of the Brown’s football arena so all of the bathrooms in the stadium were available. This was 100% better than the typical porta potties with crazy long lines. Amazing! We were early to the race so there was time to relax, check out the start corrals, and find Kevin.